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WordPress Foundation Says “Hello World” With New Site

The official word on the official birth of The WordPress Foundation came in the wee hours of January 22, 2010 (there’s still a few minutes left of January 21 in my time zone). It reads simply: Hello, world. The moment we’ve all been waiting for: the WordPress Foundation is now public. As they say, slow cookin’ makes [...]

The official word on the official birth of The WordPress Foundation came in the wee hours of January 22, 2010 (there’s still a few minutes left of January 21 in my time zone). It reads simply: Hello, world. The moment we’ve all been waiting for: the WordPress Foundation is now public. As they say, slow cookin’ makes good eatin’.

So what’s this all about? WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg explains:

“The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

The point of the foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is important to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base, that we may create a stable platform for web publishing for generations to come. ”

The move is an effort to further gather broad community support to make sure that the freely accessible software project remain that way.  When you look at the numbers you realize just how important WordPress has become:

• WordPress is available in 23 languages and has been downloaded about 18,000,000 times in 2009
• The more-than 1,100 free WordPress Themes have received over 11,000,000 downloads
• The 8,000 WordPress plugins  have received over 71,000,000 downloads

So, whether you are a WordPress user / fan or not, head on over to http://wordpressfoundation.org/ and have a look around on this momentous occasion.

(Hat tip to @acnatta for pointing this out on Twitter)

Tweet Your Thanks And Build A School For Tweetsgiving

Tweetsgiving is a Twitter celebration of gratitude and giving created by Epic Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The project aims to demonstrate the power of the social web by raising $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania.
Participation is easy, just Tweet your thanks! Share something you’re thankful for with all your twitter [...]

Tweetsgiving is a Twitter celebration of gratitude and giving created by Epic Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The project aims to demonstrate the power of the social web by raising $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania.

Participation is easy, just Tweet your thanks! Share something you’re thankful for with all your twitter followers. Your tweets can be touching or silly, poignant or fun. Just tweet from your heart and make sure to include the #TweetsGiving tag and a link to http://tinyurl.com/4thanks.

Visit the TweetsGiving site to learn what more you can do and check out the  #tweetsgiving feed from Twitter Search for a real time view into everything the twitterati crowd is thankful for this year.

Social Media Club Birmingham November Meeting

Wednesday November 19, 2008 from 11:30am - 1:00pm

Alabama Power Company

600 18th St N
Birmingham, Alabama 35203

NOTE: YOU MUST REGISTER BY 12 NOON MONDAY ON UPCOMING TO ATTEND. SECURITY WILL [...]

Wednesday November 19, 2008 from 11:30am - 1:00pm

NOTE: YOU MUST REGISTER BY 12 NOON MONDAY ON UPCOMING TO ATTEND. SECURITY WILL PRE-PRINT A VISITOR PASS FOR YOU. PICK IT UP AT THE INFO DESK IN THE LOBBY.

Video Announcement.

RSVP HERE.

The NOVEMBER 2008 meeting of the Social Media Club Birmingham will feature Bob Sims from The Birmingham News. Bob will discuss the paper’s foray into social media - what has worked and what has not -what part is video is playing in their social media strategy?

Bring your own lunch or buy one from the Alabama Power Cafeteria and bring it with you. Networking starts at 11:30, presentation at Noon.

Socialmedian Beta Launch Let’s You Filter Out The Noise

For the last several months I’ve been participating in the alpha testing of a new social news site, Socialmedian. The site has just launched it’s public beta version. When I discovered it my first reaction (and probably your thought as well) was, “Does the Web really need another social news site?” After all, we already [...]

For the last several months I’ve been participating in the alpha testing of a new social news site, Socialmedian. The site has just launched it’s public beta version. When I discovered it my first reaction (and probably your thought as well) was, “Does the Web really need another social news site?” After all, we already have Digg, Reddit, Friendfeed, Google Reader among many others. Socialmedian is similar to existing social news sites, but there are some additional features that set it apart from the crowd.

The main differentiator is the ability for the user to create his/her own personalized networks or choose from existing networks.  Your network monitors your specific keywords for stories submitted across the entire site and generates a list of related stories. Users can also pick RSS feeds they’d like to automatically pull stories from. The most interesting feature for me is a sliding “Noise” meter that limits the number of stories displayed, which could be very helpful if you’re suffering from information overload.

Founder Jason Goldberg says Socialmedian was created to focus is on helping you find stories that you’ll be interested in, rather than finding stories that are popular and appeal to the masses. On sites like Digg you can browse the top content in several high-level categories, but the top content is selected based on popularity, not your personal interests. Admittedly, to get the most out of Socialmedian you’ll have to invest some time and thought by following other users you like (flag them as a ‘Newsmaker’), trying different News Networks to subscribe to, and using the service’s feedback loops.

Like all good social networks there are easy opportunities to share: by saving a ‘Clip’ of an article to your network, adding a ‘Snip’ (a note), sending via email and even sending it to Twitter. Goldberg says the service includes 350 “user-generated features” submitted by the 4,000+ alpha users.

Give Socialmedian a try and let me know what YOU think about it. While you’re there follow me at http://www.socialmedian.com/sschablow .

Socialmedian founder Jason Goldberg decides to take the service to beta after getting my input.

The Triumph of High Achievement

I see quite a few posts around the Fourth of July that pay tribute to patriotism and democracy. The one that really captured my attention and fueled my passion was more about individual challenge. See if you can guess who said it:
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how [...]

I see quite a few posts around the Fourth of July that pay tribute to patriotism and democracy. The one that really captured my attention and fueled my passion was more about individual challenge. See if you can guess who said it:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

It’s from Teddy Roosevelt speaking at the Sorbonne in 1910. It resonates with me nearly 100 years later. It seems these days in the corporate world, in government and elsewhere we are surrounded by naysayers, critics and those who have simply have given in. I have never been one of those cold and timid souls. I’m the one marked by the dust and sweat and blood. I refuse to settle for underachievement. I refuse to put up with negativism. I refuse to give in or give up. I’m going to get up again and again. I’m going to reach deeper and stand taller than ever. I’m going to put more guts and courage in everything I do! How about you? Are you challenging yourself to be the person that you KNOW you can be? Are you reaching beyond the limits that others shackle you with? Are you striving for the triumph of high achievement?

Twitter + Webinar = Twebinar and a Huge Crowd

Yesterday I participated in the world’s first Twebinar along with 999 others interested to hear social media thought leaders talk about Game Changing Moves - Doing Business With Social Media. The Twebinar was a combination of taped video interviews and a Twitter session for audience comments and discussion.  The Twebinar was organized by Chris Brogan [...]

Yesterday I participated in the world’s first Twebinar along with 999 others interested to hear social media thought leaders talk about Game Changing Moves - Doing Business With Social Media. The Twebinar was a combination of taped video interviews and a Twitter session for audience comments and discussion.  The Twebinar was organized by Chris Brogan at CrossTech Media and David Alston at Radian6 and was wildly popular.  Before the Twebinar, Twitter was all abuzz with talk about the upcoming event. Registration for two sessions was limited to 500 each. There were many that did not make the cutoff or could not get in once the video host reached the 500 limit.

For those of us that did manage to get in, we saw Chris Brogan live in the left corner, introducing taped video interviews. It would have been nice to have live guests but understandably much more complicated. The all-star lineup of guests had great comments and provided a few top-line case studies. With so many guests (6 in all I think) there wasn’t time to delve deep enough into any topic. In fact, I’ve already heard most of what the speakers had to say. In fairness though, I spend a lot of time reading and interacting with many of the guests. There were lots of Twitter comments that indicated a sizable portion of the audience was hearing this for the first time.

Many also Tweeted (a Tweet is a post on Twitter) that they found using Twitter as a back-channel was difficult. I found it to be awkward as well.  I had video window open, but I also needed a Twitter browser window or

client application (I use Twhirl) open to input your comments. You needed a third window open with Summize real time search to aggregate all the Twebinar comments. I could not pay attention to the video, read comments and participate the discussion all at once. I prefer the interface on Ustream for such presentations. They give you the live feed in one window and have an integrated chat window below or beside the video window. I know, the point of the Twebinar was to tap into the Twitter community and generate buzz. It worked well enough and I congratulate Chris and David for coming up with the idea and making it happen. There are two more Twebinars planned in July and August and as soon as registration is opened up, I’ll be fighting for my ’seat’ in the room.

My Blogging Hiatus Ends Today

As you know I’ve been in a career shift recently and have not been posting. The dust is settling and I’ll be back bringing you information and commentary about emerging technology and social media. Please check back soon.

As you know I’ve been in a career shift recently and have not been posting. The dust is settling and I’ll be back bringing you information and commentary about emerging technology and social media. Please check back soon.

Mobile Virtual World Unveils in Japan

Recently launched in Japan, a new virtual world called Chipuya Town allows users to take their gaming on-the-go through the use of any Flash-enabled cell phone. Although it’s somewhat similar to popular virtual fictional world Second Life, it differs in that users create avatars which they use to walk around and interact with a virtual [...]

A Bad Case of Seesmic Fever

I’ve been pretending since the private beta launch of Seesmic in October that I wasn’t dying for a private beta invitation to test the service. Well, I can no longer mask my obvious envy for those who’ve been granted access. If you haven’t heard (and you will) about Seesmic, it’s a new startup by Loic [...]

I’ve been pretending since the private beta launch of Seesmic in October that I wasn’t dying for a private beta invitation to test the service. Well, I can no longer mask my obvious envy for those who’ve been granted access. If you haven’t heard (and you will) about Seesmic, it’s a new startup by Loic Le Meur, a well known European entrepreneur that recently relocated to San Francisco. It can best be described as Twitter video. The larger vision is for it to become an online video/television service where people interact around professional and user generated content. I’m very much into video. In my early career I was a TV journalist. In my current career I am in the planning stages of launching my own web video show. Seesmic would be the perfect outlet. Seems like I’ll have to wait like the rest of you (more than 5,000 on the list). For now, I’ll just admit my jealously every time I receive a link to a Seesmic video posted by one of my friends who snagged one of the first 300 invitations.

Nissan’s Magical Electric Paint Changes Colors on the Fly

While this post may not fall into the interactive space, it is about putting the customer in control and is just flat out COOL!You’ve probably been there. You get all excited about buying a car and then a short while after making the purchase, you regret the color choice. Sure, you still love your sleek [...]

While this post may not fall into the interactive space, it is about putting the customer in control and is just flat out COOL!You’ve probably been there. You get all excited about buying a car and then a short while after making the purchase, you regret the color choice. Sure, you still love your sleek black Nissan 350Z, but then you see a gorgeous blue number fly by and wish you went with that paint job instead. Soon, you may not have to choose.

Nissan is working on some sort of self-healing paint system that can actually change color based on your mood. Just flip the switch on the dash and your Sentra goes from white to red to black to whatever other color you want. It’s not a whole new paint job; the actual paint itself is changing color. This is achieved because the paint is a polymer-based substance with tiny iron oxide particles. You can manipulate these particles with an electric current and based on the distance between the particles, we perceive a different color.

You’ve got to wonder about insurance issues, though, because while the “default” color is white, what would it read on your registration papers? What about a high-speed chase where the car keeps changing color?

Original article/post found at http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/354/C13813/.